Meshtastic-Android/docs/en/user/settings-module-admin.md

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title	parent	nav_order	last_updated	description	aliases
Settings — Modules & Admin	User Guide	8	2026-08-30	Configure optional feature modules (MQTT, telemetry, canned messages, TAK, and more) and perform device administration.	modules module-config administration

Settings — Modules & Admin

Configure optional feature modules and perform device administration. Modules extend Meshtastic with specialized capabilities — each can be independently enabled or disabled.

💡 Tip: You only need to enable the modules you actually use. Disabling unused modules reduces airtime, saves battery, and simplifies your configuration. A module you expect can be missing for three reasons: your node's role does not enable it, your firmware is older than the release that added it, or the firmware build excludes it for this hardware.

Module settings use a card-based layout with toggle switches, dropdowns, text fields, and sliders:

Module Configuration

Every module lives under Settings → Module configuration.

⚠️ Important: Saving a module screen restarts the radio — the button reads Save & restart, and the radio is unreachable for a few seconds afterwards. External Notification and Mesh Beacon are the exceptions: their button reads Save, and the radio may still restart for some changes.

MQTT Module

Bridges mesh messages to and from an MQTT broker for internet connectivity. This is how you extend your mesh beyond radio range or integrate with home automation systems.

Setting	Description
MQTT enabled	Toggle MQTT bridge
Address	MQTT broker address
Username	Authentication username
Password	Authentication password
Encryption enabled	Encrypt MQTT payloads
JSON output enabled	Publish and consume MQTT messages as JSON. Marked deprecated in the protobuf schema, but it is still the only toggle for this behavior and the firmware still honors it
TLS enabled	Use secure connection
Root topic	Base MQTT topic path
Proxy to client enabled	Let a connected phone carry the node's MQTT traffic, instead of the node reaching the broker itself
MQTT proxy on this phone	The phone-side half of Proxy to client enabled: whether this phone acts as that relay. See MQTT
Map reporting	Publish position to the public map — see the Map reporting group that follows

Turning Map reporting on reveals a consent card headed Consent to Share Unencrypted Node Data via MQTT, with an I agree. switch under it. The rest of the card does not exist on screen until you agree:

Setting	Description
I agree.	Explicit consent to transmit your node data, including an approximate position, unencrypted. Map reporting does not start without it
Precision slider	The slider has no label of its own. It sets how coarsely your position is published, from 12 to 15; the line beneath reads ± the resulting distance, in your own units
Map reporting interval (seconds)	How often to report. A dropdown of fixed intervals from 1 hour to 72 hours — nothing shorter is offered

See MQTT for a detailed usage guide including encryption, privacy, and broker setup.

Serial Module

Enables serial port communication for external device integrations (GPS modules, sensors, or custom hardware). When enabled, the node's serial port can send and receive protobuf or text data, allowing external microcontrollers or computers to interact with the mesh.

Setting	Description
Serial enabled	Activate serial communication
Echo enabled	Echo received serial data back
Serial mode	Which protocol the port speaks — Default, Simple, Proto, Text message, NMEA, CalTopo, WS85 weather station, VE.Direct, MeshSolar config, Log, or Log (text only)
RX / TX	GPIO pins for the serial connection
Serial baud rate	Port speed
Timeout	How long to wait before considering an incoming message complete
Override console serial port	Take over the port the debug console normally uses

External Notification Module

Controls buzzer, LED, or vibration alerts on your radio hardware. Useful for devices that need to physically signal when a message arrives — particularly helpful for unattended or outdoor installations.

There are two independent triggers — an incoming message, and a received bell character — and each can drive the LED, the buzzer and the vibration motor separately, giving six toggles.

Setting	Description
External notification enabled	Master toggle for the module
Alert message LED / buzzer / vibra	Which outputs fire on an incoming message
Alert bell LED / buzzer / vibra	Which outputs fire on a received bell character
Output LED (GPIO)	Pin the LED is wired to
Output LED active high	Whether the LED pin is active high or low
Output buzzer (GPIO)	Pin the buzzer is wired to
Output vibra (GPIO)	Pin the vibration motor is wired to
Use PWM buzzer	Drive the buzzer with PWM, which allows tones rather than a single pitch
Use I2S as buzzer	Send the alert through an I2S audio output instead
Output duration (milliseconds)	How long a single alert lasts
Nag timeout (seconds)	Keep repeating the alert for this long until it is acknowledged. 0 disables nagging
Ringtone	The tone played on a PWM buzzer, in RTTTL. Can be imported from a file

Store & Forward Module

Buffers messages for nodes that were temporarily offline, then replays them when those nodes reconnect. Essential for meshes where nodes go in and out of range regularly — ensures messages aren't lost during brief disconnections.

Setting	Description
Store & Forward enabled	Activate store and forward
Heartbeat	Periodically announce this node's store-and-forward capability
Number of records	Maximum stored messages
History return max	Max messages to replay
History return window	Time window for replay
Server	Act as a store-and-forward server for the mesh (requires ample memory, e.g. ESP32 with PSRAM)

💡 Tip: Store and Forward works best on nodes with ample memory (ESP32 with PSRAM). Router nodes are ideal candidates since they're typically always-on.

Range Test Module

⚠️ Warning: Range Test only works on a secured primary channel. As long as your primary channel still uses the default channel key, the interval and CSV controls stay disabled — you can still switch an already-enabled module off — and saving force-disables the module if the channel has reverted to public.

Automated range testing tool for evaluating link quality between nodes. When enabled, the node periodically transmits test messages with incrementing counters. A receiver node logs these messages, allowing you to walk or drive away and later analyze at what distance messages stopped arriving.

Setting	Description
Range test enabled	Activate range testing
Sender message interval (seconds)	Time between test transmissions, chosen from a dropdown of fixed intervals
Save .CSV in storage (ESP32 only)	Log received test data to the radio's own filesystem. ESP32 hardware only

Telemetry Module

Controls what telemetry data your node shares with the mesh. Telemetry includes device health (battery, uptime) and environmental sensor data (temperature, humidity, pressure).

Each of the four metric groups has its own enable toggle and its own interval, so you can report battery health often and sensors rarely.

Setting	Description
Send Device Telemetry	Master toggle for device metrics. Only shown on firmware 2.7.12 and newer
Device metrics update interval	How often to report battery, uptime and channel utilization
Environment metrics module enabled	Report the attached environment sensors
Environment metrics update interval	How often to report them
Environment metrics on-screen enabled	Also show these readings on the device's own display
Environment metrics use Fahrenheit	Use °F on the device's display. This is the radio's screen only — the app follows your phone's locale, see Units & Locale
Air quality metrics module enabled	Report particulate and CO₂ sensor data
Air quality metrics update interval	How often to report them
Power metrics module enabled	Report the per-channel voltage and current readings
Power metrics update interval	How often to report them
Power metrics on-screen enabled	Also show power readings on the device's display

See Telemetry & Sensors for supported sensors and configuration recommendations.

Canned Message Module

Pre-configured messages accessible from the radio's physical buttons (for radios with rotary encoders, keypads, or similar input hardware). Define a list of quick-send messages that can be transmitted without a phone connected — ideal for field use.

Setting	Description
Canned message enabled	⚠️ Deprecated in the protobuf schema
Messages	Newline-separated list of messages
Send bell	Send a bell character alongside the message, so a receiving node's External Notification module can sound
Rotary encoder #1 enabled	Use a rotary encoder as the input device
GPIO pin for rotary encoder A / B / Press port	The three pins the encoder is wired to
Generate input event on Press / CW / CCW	Which key event each encoder action produces
Up/Down/Select input enabled	A separate, simpler input scheme using up/down/select buttons rather than an encoder
Allow input source	⚠️ Deprecated in the protobuf schema

Audio Module

Codec2 audio support for low-bandwidth voice communication over the mesh. This is an experimental feature that encodes voice into very small data packets using the Codec2 codec.

Setting	Description
CODEC 2 enabled	Activate audio module
CODEC2 sample rate	Audio quality/bandwidth tradeoff
PTT pin	GPIO pin for the push-to-talk button
I2S word select	GPIO pin for I2S WS
I2S data in	GPIO pin for I2S DIN
I2S data out	GPIO pin for I2S DOUT
I2S clock	GPIO pin for the I2S bit clock

ℹ️ Note: Audio requires specific hardware (I2S microphone and speaker). Voice quality is very low-bandwidth — think "understandable radio voice," not phone-call quality.

Remote Hardware Module

GPIO control over the mesh network. Allows a remote node to read or write GPIO pins on another node — useful for activating relays, reading switches, or controlling external hardware from a distance.

⚠️ Warning: Turning on Allow undefined pin access gives remote nodes access to all GPIO pins, which could interfere with the radio's own hardware. Turn it on only on dedicated GPIO nodes.

Setting	Description
Remote Hardware enabled	Activate remote GPIO access
Allow undefined pin access	Allow access to any GPIO pin (security risk)
Available pins	Up to 4 GPIO pins this node exposes for remote read/write

Neighbor Info Module

Broadcasts information about directly heard neighbors, enabling mesh topology mapping. Each enabled node periodically shares a list of the other nodes it can hear and their signal quality.

Setting	Description
Neighbor Info enabled	Activate neighbor broadcasting
Update interval (seconds)	How often to broadcast neighbor list
Transmit over LoRa	Also broadcast neighbor info over LoRa, not just MQTT/phone. Unavailable on a channel using the default key and name

See Local Mesh Discovery for how to use neighbor data for mesh topology exploration.

Ambient Lighting Module

Controls onboard NeoPixel or other addressable RGB LEDs on supported hardware. Can be used for visual status indicators, notification lights, or decorative effects.

Setting	Description
LED state	Turn the LED on or off
Current	LED current limit (0–31)
Red / Green / Blue	Individual color channel values (0–255)

Detection Sensor Module

Turns your node into a motion or door sensor alert system. When a GPIO pin detects a state change (motion detected, door opened), the node broadcasts an alert message over the mesh.

Setting	Description
Detection Sensor enabled	Activate detection sensor
GPIO pin to monitor	GPIO pin connected to sensor
Detection trigger type	How the pin's state maps to a detection event (e.g. active high/low, edge-triggered)
Use INPUT_PULLUP mode	Enable the pin's internal pull-up resistor
Minimum broadcast (seconds)	Minimum time between alert broadcasts
State broadcast (seconds)	Periodic state broadcast interval
Send bell with alert message	Include bell character in alerts
Friendly name	Custom name for this sensor

Paxcounter Module

People counter using Wi-Fi and BLE probe requests. Counts nearby devices by passively listening for probe requests that phones and laptops emit when scanning for networks. Available only on ESP32 devices.

Setting	Description
Paxcounter enabled	Activate people counting
Update interval (seconds)	How often to report counts
Wi-Fi RSSI threshold	Ignore Wi-Fi probes weaker than this, so distant devices are not counted (defaults to −80 dBm)
BLE RSSI threshold	The same cut-off for BLE advertisements (defaults to −80 dBm)

💡 Tip: Paxcounter is useful for estimating foot traffic at trailheads, event venues, or other locations. Counts are approximate — one person may carry multiple devices.

Status Message Module

The status message has no module screen. It is edited with the rest of the node's identity, on Settings — Radio & User.

Mesh Beacon Module

Broadcasts an invitation to your mesh, and receives invitations from others. The entry appears only on radios running firmware 2.8.0 or newer. See Local Mesh Discovery for the full walkthrough.

TAK Module

Team Awareness Kit integration for interoperability with ATAK and WinTAK. Two things have to be true before the entry appears in the module list: the radio runs firmware 2.8.0 or newer, and its Device Role on Settings → Device configuration → Device is set to TAK or TAK_TRACKER. See TAK Integration for detailed setup and usage.

Administration

Remote Administration

Remotely configure nodes that share your admin key:

1. Select the target node in the node list.
2. Navigate to Settings for that node.
3. Modify configuration.
4. Tap Save — changes are sent over the mesh.

⚠️ Important: Requires an admin key configured on both your node and the target node.

Device Actions

Settings → Administration holds five one-shot actions, each behind a confirmation dialog:

Action	What it does
Set time	Sends your phone's clock to the radio
Reboot	Restarts the radio
Shutdown	Powers the radio down
Factory reset	Returns every setting to its factory default
NodeDB reset	Clears the radio's node database. This dialog carries a Preserve Favorites? switch

⚠️ Warning: Factory reset erases all settings, channels, and keys, and cannot be undone. Before you reset, use Export configuration to save the radio's settings and Backup Keys on the Security screen to save its keys, so you can put both back afterwards.

Backup & Restore

Settings → Backup & Restore writes the connected radio's whole configuration to a file with Export configuration, and reads a saved file back in with Import configuration. Export before a factory reset, or to copy one radio's setup onto another. The section is shown for your own radio only, not over remote admin.

Advanced

Settings → Advanced collects the tools that read or rewrite local state, and is likewise shown for your own radio only: Firmware Update on OTA-capable hardware, Clean Node Database, TAK Server, Local Mesh Discovery, and the Debug Panel.

Clean Node Database

Prunes nodes from your node database — from the app's copy and from the radio's own, so this is not a display-only cleanup. The two filters combine rather than acting separately; the screen puts it as Selections are additive.

• Clean up nodes last seen older than N days — always applied. The slider runs from 7 days to 365 and starts at 30; with Clean up only unknown nodes turned on, its floor drops to 0.
• Clean up only unknown nodes — narrows the same purge to nodes that never sent their user info. The age limit still applies on top of it.

The screen lists the nodes queued for deletion as you move the filters. Clean Now carries the purge out, after one more confirmation, and it cannot be undone. Favorited nodes, ignored nodes, and nodes with a public key heard in the last seven days are never removed, whatever the filters say — that is why the queued list can be shorter than you expect.

Debug Panel

Opens the Packets and App logs tabs for viewing, filtering, and exporting diagnostic output. See Debug Logs for the full walkthrough.

App Settings

Two easy-to-miss entries on the Settings screen configure the app rather than the radio, and appear only when your own node is selected:

• Node Layout — how much detail each row of the node list shows.
• Message Filter — hides incoming messages that contain words you list. With no words configured it does nothing.

About

Settings → About carries the app's own identity rather than the radio's:

Three sections:

• What is Meshtastic? — a short description of the project.
• Apps — opens with Need Hardware?, a rotating carousel of popular devices that links out to where to buy one. It also lists the GitHub repository, the running app version, and Acknowledgements (see the next section).
• Project information — links to the website and to this documentation.

Acknowledgements

Reached from About, this lists every open-source library the app ships, with its license, generated at build time by AboutLibraries. It was previously called the license screen.

Troubleshooting Remote Admin

• "No response from target node" — the target may be out of range, offline, or have a mismatched admin key. Verify the admin key matches on both nodes.
• Changes not applying — some settings require a reboot to take effect. Try the Reboot action after saving.
• Can't see remote settings — ensure your node has the admin key for the target node. The admin channel is configured automatically when an admin key is set.

Related Topics

• Settings — Radio & User — core radio and user profile settings
• Module configuration reference — detailed module docs on meshtastic.org
• FAQ — common questions on meshtastic.org